Presented by Rag and Bone Theatre, this visceral and vibrant adaptation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar uses just four actors and a 90-minute slot to tell the story.
Anna Blackburn directs and designs the sound, while Venus Raven’s lighting offers some effects such as bathing the stage in red or offering an ominous flicker at the mention of the Ides of March.
Obviously, a lot of the text is excised from the play as written, but the sense stays and despite numerous characters being depicted, this Julius Caesar is easy to follow.
With a set dressing suggestive of an abattoir, with butcher hooks being utilised with hanging rags whenever a death is announced, this adaptation is about blood, violence, and honour.
Mark Antony notes that Brutus, chief conspirator against the “ambitious” Caesar, is “an honorable man”. Cassius and Brutus plot the downfall of their leader for the good of Rome.
Rags stand for daggers and swords, pulled taut for the strike. The cast is gender-blind, so Cassius and Mark Antony are played by women (who also double as Calpurnia and Portia).
Physical movement is used to transition between scenes and slow down action, while each scene is watched by the actor not taking part, but acting as the judges of conspiracy, battle and murder.
Not everything is completely effective: the depicted demise of Portia feels forced set against the murders of Caesar, and later, of one of the conspirators in his death.
The pounding of drums keeps up the tension, while a sense of a crowd is created through movement and energy from the actors. This is a Caesar emphasising the fragility of empire, the power of suggestion, and the cheapness of life.
Arnold Patrick Lumu plays Caesar and others. His sense of authority in the title role and passivity as servants and hangers-on draws the eye in. Louis Cruzat’s Brutus is whisper quiet, and yet the hardest of them all.
In Clio Carrara’s Mark Antony and others, there is a real vibrancy and vulnerability, while Greta Hansen offers an assured and noble Cassius.
This is a Caesar that trims off enough to keep the play’s sense while highlighting the harsh reality of a Rome bathed in the warm blood of men who seek a world just out of reach.
4 stars.
You can see Julius Caesar until tonight, 7 Jun, at the Hen & Chickens Theatre. For more on Rag & Bone Theatre see their Instagram.